Canadian Premiere
In her third film with VIFF mainstay Hong Sangsoo, Isabelle Huppert plays a mysterious Frenchwoman abroad in South Korea. Iris is her name, and as the movie opens she’s giving a most unconventional language lesson to Isong (Kim Seungyun), a novice French learner and amateur musician. Next in Iris’s schedule are Wonju (Lee Hyeyoung) and Haesoon (Kwon Haehyo), a couple for whom instruction will involve significant quantities of booze. As we follow this quirky lady through a series of encounters, Hong deploys suggestive repetition, with motifs that recur from scene to scene—only to break the pattern by introducing Iris’s much-younger boyfriend Inguk (Ha Seongguk)…
Hong is a major filmmaker of modest means: out of awkward social encounters, relatable human folly, and teasing enigmas, he’s built one of contemporary cinema’s most impressive oeuvres. Here he explores cultural difference with a unique method but typically humorous results. Much like the Korean poetry it showcases, A Traveler’s Needs is deceptively small-scale and delicately profound—a lovely little work of art.
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize, Berlin 2024
Media Partner
Community Partner
Isabelle Huppert, Lee Hyeyoung, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee, Ha Seongguk
South Korea
2024
In English, French and Korean with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Hong Sangsoo
Screenwriter
Hong Sangsoo
Cinematography
Hong Sangsoo
Editor
Hong Sangsoo
Original Music
Hong Sangsoo
Hong Sangsoo 홍상수
Hong Sangsoo was born in Seoul, South Korea on Oct. 25, 1960. He studied at Chung-Ang University, California College of the Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He made his first feature film in 1996. Since then he has made 31 feature films and a few short films.
Filmography: The Power of Kangwon Province (1998); A Tale of Cinema (2005); The Day He Arrives (2011); Right Now, Wrong Then (2015); On the Beach at Night Alone (2017); Introduction (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Hanging by a Wire
The Himalayas, Aug 22, 2023: a cable car bearing 8 passengers (six of them schoolkids) is left dangling 900 feet above the ground when two out of three cables snap. This nailbiting documentary recounts the increasingly frantic rescue attempts.
The Sun Never Sets
At the suggestion of her much older (divorced) boyfriend, Wendy (Dakota Fanning) takes a summer to reevaluate her life and date other people. She's reluctant at first, but then reconnects with an old flame... A gentle indie comedy from Joe Swanberg.
A Sad and Beautiful World
This Lebanese love story chronicles the romance between a level-headed businesswoman and a romantic restauranteur across several decades in wartorn Beirut. It's funny, charming, melancholy and you'll feel it all.
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.